[GreenYes] Fw: [USCC] Make your voice heard supporting composting!

["Bill Sheehan" <zerowaste@grrn.org>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim McNelly" <jim@composter.com>
To: <compost@compostingcouncil.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 19, 2001 2:44 PM
Subject: [USCC] Make your voice heard supporting composting!

Friends of Composting,

I believe that this composting issue in Peoria may be as great a threat to
the composting industry as the DowAgrosciences Clopyralid problem.

In the past, landfill bioreactor proponents have generally stated that
there was sufficient organic matter in the solid waste stream to generate
methane without competing with composting programs.  There have been
general questions whether or not bioreactors were efficient methane
production systems, whether the extra water required to operate bioreactors
created more problems with leachate, and the security of landfill liners
when subjected to extra equipment and handling that bioreactors require as
contrasted with dry-tomb landfills.  These are just to name a few concerns.

We in the composting industry never believed that the bioreactor proponents
would be so callous as to call for an end to composting programs so that
even more organic matter could go to the landfill.

But the situation at the Peoria County landfill is trying to do just
that.  The decision before the County Board is to bring an end to separate
collection of organics and end the composting program in order to send more
organic matter to the landfill, all in the name of "renewable energy".

The coalition of environmental groups that is opposing this effort on the
part of the County and Waste Management Inc. is concerned that this effort
could create a ripple effect throughout the country, meaning that if this
plan of stopping the composting program is not stopped now, that the future
of many more municipal composting programs will be in jeopardy.

The US Composting Council takes this threat to our industry very seriously,
and thankfully the decision to table the motion until January 10 gives us
more time to mobilize our forces and keep the composting program in Peoria
viable.

What we need from the friends of composting are the following:

1. letters to the Peoria County Board expressing concern, opposition,
dismay, apprehension, over this issue, how landfills are not the way to
manage organics, how inefficient the bioreactor theory is for managing
organics compared to controlled composting, how we should be moving toward
zero waste goals, not sending more waste to landfills, etc.

2. Any and all information in your archives regarding bioreactors and their
environmental effects

3. Positive essays and information on the greatness and wonderfulness of
compost, and how environmentally necessary composting is, and how your
community supports its composting program, how it is a part of the move
toward sustainable communities, and so forth.

4. Phone calls and letters to friends of composting in Central Illinois who
can help mobilize support, letters to the editor, and rally people to
attend the January 10 meeting.

We will be doing a disservice to our industry and to the general public if
we simply stand by and let the bioreactor forces have their way closing
composting projects without an outcry!

I am convinced that a strong and vocal response against "feeding more
organics to the bioreactor monster" will not only stop this key, first
threat to our industry, but it will cause the bioreactor proponents to
think twice before they try to close any composting programs in the future.

We have to oppose closing composting programs now, and we have to be ready
to oppose their closing in the future.  We have less than a month to
respond to the threat to the composting industry in Peoria.

Jim~ McNelly
The Compost Man
jim@composter.com
Http://www.composter.com
_______________________________________________
Compost maillist  -  Compost@compostingcouncil.org
Non-members of the Council are encouraged to join the US Composting 
Council through our website at:
http://www.compostingcouncil.org/member_application.html 


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